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Welcome back to Communication Breakdown, a weekly podcast from the Observatory on Corporate

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Reputation.

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Thanks for joining us.

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I'm Steve Dowling in Silicon Valley.

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And I'm Craig Carroll in New York City.

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Each week, Steve and I take a look at strategies companies are using to shape headlines and

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sometimes save their skins.

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It's a post-game show for PR Pros.

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This week, Harvard's defiant media campaign kicks off at Summer Session, but first a strategic

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peak behind the curtain courtesy of United Airlines.

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Newark Liberty International Airport has been a source of concern for travelers, regulators

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and airlines and a symbol of the broader crisis facing America's airports.

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Ever since a radar outage in late April forced dozens of flights to divert and hundreds

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more to delay or cancel.

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Newark suffered two more equipment failures in the two weeks that followed, heightening

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fears even as airlines cut back flights to ease the burden on air traffic controllers and

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their equipment.

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And no airline is more closely associated with Newark than United Airlines.

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It's their biggest East Coast hub and the operate well over half the flights in and out

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of the airport carrying almost 10 million passengers a year.

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CEO Scott Kirby was quick to reassure the flying public in early May, saying air travel is

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safe and the company is taking action, a message she has repeated in multiple TV interviews.

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"It absolutely is safe at Newark and in the entire country.

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And the reason is when these kind of outages happen, we train for them, we have backup procedures,

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we have backups to backups to backups to backups to keep the sky safe, which is always the

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number one priority."

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That was Kirby on CBS Face the Nation two weeks ago.

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He made similar comments on CNN around the same time.

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And United has not stopped there.

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Here at the end of May, when press coverage predictably focuses on the Memorial Day start

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of summer travel, the airline is pulling back the curtain on its safety operations.

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First with an exclusive for the New York Times behind the scenes at United's Newark Command

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Center, then for CNN reported out of Denver in a 737 simulator training for an air traffic

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control outage.

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Captain Miles Morgan is the head of training for United.

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"I don't really worry when something is a little abnormal, we're trained for all these abnormalities.

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It's not just this, it's we're constantly training for whatever could be going wrong and

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how to make a decision to rectify that."

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Steve, United's message is pretty clear and after a month it seems like a mantra.

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What's the significance of this latest step- showing customers how the sausage is made?

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I think this is a really smart move by United.

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It's proactive transparency and obviously we don't know the origin of these stories, whether

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they were invitations by United or requests by the news outlets.

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But ultimately it doesn't matter because United made this decision to grant this kind

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of access, which I think in the case of the Newark Command Center, it's unprecedented

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for them.

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The TV appearances by Kirby were really effective.

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They were really effective rapid responses.

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He got the message out, calm and confident and he delivered it with like, about as close

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to absolute certainty as you can responsibly get.

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What this new round gets them is a little drama but controlled drama that taking you behind

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the scenes in the middle of a crisis.

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It adds this other really compelling dimension, some transparency that aims to show you that

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United is really on top of things.

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So, they're getting attention, they're getting it on their own terms, importantly.

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They're really projecting confidence just by doing it because it seems like the kind of thing

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that an airline would not be doing if there were any chance of failure.

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Yeah.

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Dan Sullivan is the founder of a coaching program called Strategic Coach.

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I think he's one of the clear thinkers on leadership growth.

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He says that confidence doesn't come first.

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It comes last.

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He's got this model called the Four C's: Commitment, Courage, Capability and then Confidence.

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United is walking that path in public.

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First, they're committed, owning, new work when others might have distanced themselves and

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then they're showing courage, pulling back the curtain mid-crisis when most companies

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would double down on message control and then came capability, right?

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Not just in how they trained behind the scenes but in their willingness to let us see it.

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But here's the thing, it takes real capability to be that transparent.

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You don't invite cameras into your command center or simulator unless you've done the

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reps.

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Unless you know what people will find is a system worth showing and that's what leads to

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confidence, not just internally but for the public.

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United isn't saying "trust us,"

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they're saying "watch us," and that's not messaging.

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That's a little bit of evidence.

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In a chaotic media environment, evidence doesn't just build trust.

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It suspends doubt.

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It sort of earns you another chance.

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But to mean the confidence isn't to finish line.

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It's only the invitation.

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The real test is still ahead.

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The flights leave on time.

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So confidence isn't what you lead with.

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It's what you earn by pulling back the curtain and proving you've done the steps.

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But ultimately this is not going to be measured in headlines or simulator walkthroughs,

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it's going to be measured on the tarmac.

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I think that in the meantime though, they're leaving people with a good feeling about

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United.

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And this Time's story has these cool headed characters, one of them's monitoring a caduzon

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departures and she says to the times the party never stops.

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It's like, it's kind of blase, but again, it projects confidence.

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And you heard the training director on CNN saying, I don't worry about anomaly.

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But I want that guy in the cockpit of my flight.

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But strategically, I think what they're doing here is they're taking us inside the black

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box.

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They're demystifying a process that people are really worried about.

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And I think that one of the key goals is to counter this narrative that flying is risky

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because air traffic control towers are under staffed, which apparently they are.

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And the United Command Center is not the control tower, but the United Command Center

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in the New York Times photos,

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it is packed with people like the conference room is standing room only.

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And it's pretty simple, but I think it's pretty effective what they're showing.

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And the other narrative is that air traffic controllers have been trying to land planes

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without radar for minutes at a time.

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That is terrifying.

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But you have United pilots going, I don't worry about that.

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And we have redundancies on top of redundancies.

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The message, even when equipment fails, you can trust the people of United.

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So I think they made a good move and they made it at the right time.

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Okay.

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Well, yeah, I think that moment in the times the party never stops.

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It reads cool and calm.

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But I don't know.

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I think we need to be careful that kind of framing for somebody in aviation, that line says,

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hey, we've got this.

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But I'm not exactly nervous, but it does sound like they're normalizing dysfunction a little

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bit.

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And the same thing with the simulator comment on CNN that they don't worry about anomalies

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to me.

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That kind of line works if people believe the system is strong.

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But public trust is shaky.

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That tone can feel a little different and that confidence.

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I look at it a little differently because I think if you have a choice of what to be afraid

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of, I think you would rather have people go back to if you said you're a nervous flyer,

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like go back to your previous state of being a nervous flyer versus, again, the choice

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of being afraid of something that you don't know what the, you don't know it.

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Like that's why I say the black box.

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So I think that it is a risk, but is a supreme, like, confidence play.

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But at the base of it, it's pretty simple.

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What you're doing is you're demystifying, you're taking people inside and you're saying like,

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this is how it works.

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You may still face the same risk, but at least you are better informed.

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And I think especially when it comes to air travel, when you're better informed, you feel

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a little better about air travel because it is still the safest way to travel.

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Look, the way I see this, you know, they're not just trying to build confidence.

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They're trying to create enough evidence to suspend doubt.

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And I think that's a little bit of a different goal.

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It's slower, a little bit more fragile and it depends entirely on what happens next.

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But showing your systems is one thing, but if backs are still late, planes are still sitting

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on the tarmac, the message changes fast.

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It's not being, look how reddo we are and it becomes, this is them at their best, you know?

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So that's why Transparency has got to be backed up with consistency.

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If you don't deliver, it doesn't buy you trust.

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It sharpens the disappointment and accelerates the scrutiny.

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And at the end of the day, you know, it's decided on the runway, not the newsroom.

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Yeah, no, I agree.

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It'll be really interesting to see how their campaign plays out.

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Let's talk about the latest from Harvard where the Trump administration has been stepping

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up its attacks.

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This week was a barrage by the White House like day after day, Trump's canceling their government

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contracts.

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He's blocking visas for foreign students, which was also immediately blocked by a federal

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judge.

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Trump wants Harvard to tell the feds where these students are coming from like the government

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doesn't already know.

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And on defense, once again, we have Alan Garber, the president of Harvard University.

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Garber got two standing ovation at commencement on Thursday.

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The crowd stood for almost a minute when he was introduced and then again when he mentioned

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that Harvard's graduating class comes from in his words, "Down the street across the country

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and around the world."

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"A round the world just as it should be."

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Earlier this week, as Trump was threatening and berating university from the Oval Office,

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Garber responded to this latest round of pressure with another mini-press tour.

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He gave interviews to the Harvard Crimson and NPR.

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He also spent a lot of time in that interview, patiently addressing the introspection

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that Harvard has been doing on allegations of antisemitism and inclusivity in general,

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but Craig, the takeaway of the interests of the university, the interests of the nation,

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that sounds like, to me, what you might call a classic alignment signaling.

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Do you think it's working?

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Yeah, this is alignment signaling.

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It's also coalition signaling too.

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Garber sang to other universities if they defund Harvard, they can defund you.

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But the risk is if the public sees Harvard, defending Harvard, that story collapses inward.

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To work, this message has got to become about the people who benefit when knowledge flows.

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Students, patients, communities, even competitors.

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That's the only way you're going to build enough narrative gravity to counteract the backlash.

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Here's Garber telling NPR that what the administration is doing is firing a shot across the bow at

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all research universities.

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It is a warning.

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They see this as a message that if you don't comply with what we're demanding, these will

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be the consequences.

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Yeah, I think that Garber's got really good message discipline working in his favor.

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You want that when you're in a draw-out campaign.

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The talking points we heard this week were very consistent with what he told Lester Holt

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back in April.

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I think I heard some sharpening of a few of the key messages.

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First, he's really leaning into this idea of what's good for Harvard is good for America,

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serving our nation and the world as a phrase that I heard a couple of times.

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I think this is your alignment signaling.

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He's tying Harvard's fate to America's.

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That means also what's bad for Harvard is bad for America, but he's flipping the script on

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this backlash against intellectuals or elites or whatever.

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I think you may think you're punishing Harvard by cutting off research grants, and you are,

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but you're also hurting people who would benefit from the output of that research, which

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could be a breakthrough drug treatment.

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Here's Garber talking about the impact of canceling those government grants and contracts.

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"Shutting off that work does not help the country, even as it punishes Harvard, and it is hard

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to see the link between that and say anti-Semitism."

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The other thrust here, I think, as you point out in this latest round is it's a rallying

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cry for other research universities.

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Garber keeps saying this is not just Harvard, but government is firing a shot across the

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bow of all the big research institutions.

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There is this coalition message as well.

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Yeah.

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Garber's message is disciplined and it's real, and the good for America framing is certainly

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intentional.

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I think we have to ask alignment signaling for hope because it's one thing to say Harvard

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is a national asset, and it's another to make people believe it, especially right now when

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some see it as a problem and not a solution.

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This feels like Harvard is trying to perform alignment without surrender, through signaling

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national service, institutional restraint, scientific value, without bending the knee, and

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that is the classic access strategy within the alignment signaling.

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But here's the challenge.

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Signal strength only works if someone is still willing to receive the signal, and I'm not

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sure yet if the Trump administration or maybe even parts of the public are still on that

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channel.

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The deeper move here is just about saving Harvard's reputation.

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It's about defending the legitimacy of institutional autonomy in a moment when the expertise is being

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reframed in a city logical capture.

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I think that's not a PR battle.

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That's an existential one.

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Yeah.

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I think importantly though, for this week, and I think this is sort of a phase two of their

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campaign.

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Yeah.

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It's really like who is the target for this signal this week?

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And if you look at the media outlets that he chose to talk to, the Crimson, which is

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the student newspaper.

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And PR, I think this is focused on a pretty narrow audience.

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I think we're seeing Garber here rallying the troops.

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This is about internal credibility and morale.

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And that's a heavy lift at elite colleges right now.

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Just look at Columbia's commencement.

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Was it last week that President Claire Shipman was booed and jeered?

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And last year at Harvard, a thousand graduates walked out in protest.

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And Garber himself was booed because they banned a dozen students who had participated

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in pro-Palestinian demonstration.

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So fast forward to Thursday, he's getting a standing ovation.

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I think the playbook that he's running here is stay on message, widen the frame, stabilize

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the base.

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His message is may appeal to the country if anybody out there is listening to your point.

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But he's defending his institution.

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And in this moment, at least he's uniting his campus.

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And don't take our word for it.

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Take it from Karim Abdul-Jabbar, the basketball legend civil rights leader speaking at Harvard's

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class day on Wednesday, after comparing Garber to Rosa Parks.

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After seeing so many cowering billionaires, medium-ovales, law firms, politicians, and other

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universities, bend their knee to an administration that is systematically strip mining in the

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U.S. Constitution, it is inspiring to me to see Harvard University take a stand for freedom.

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That's one heck of a validating statement as Harvard's campaign enters this next phase.

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Yeah, this definitely feels like a stage two, the first phase about holding the line, legal

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filings, public defense, and avoiding collapse.

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And this one is definitely about reestablishing his footing inside the university.

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So going to the Crimson and NPR, not because he's chasing headlines, but because he knows

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credibility starts at home.

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And for sure, standing ovation sounds like resolution.

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But I don't know, I think we should be a little bit cautious here.

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Commencement is, you know, it's built to unify.

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It's ceremonial, it's emotional.

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It's one of the only moments that the university president gets a scripted stage, right?

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I mean, last year, definitely that stage cracked, booze, walkouts, fracture trust, but this

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year at hell.

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And but it doesn't mean that the fractures are gone, right?

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To your point, I think what Garber is really trying to do here is to stabilize Harvard from

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the inside out, rebuild institutional confidence after a year of fragmentation.

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And yeah, I'm with you.

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The playbooks clear, stand message, widen the frame, restore, restore coherence.

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And I'd say yes, it's working for now.

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Yeah, no, I think especially this week, if I'm Harvard, I like the split screen.

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You have Trump at West Point, giving, you know, a weird hour long commencement address,

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and you have Garber getting a standing ovation.

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But I just think it punctuates it in Harvard's favor.

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Yeah.

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You know, if there's value to that externally, I believe that there is, but at minimum,

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I think this is the objective here is that it's helping him internally.

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I think there's a political dynamic that's worth watching here, and I'm interested your

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thoughts on this, but I'm kind of hoping that there's an element here of what the financial

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times has coined the taco trade.

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Have you heard about this?

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Oh, yeah, so the taco is an acronym for Trump always chickens out.

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And the taco trade is you don't panic when Trump makes another tariff threat because

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Trump always chickens out.

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And maybe that applies here as well as Thursday as the graduates are walking across the stage

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and they're cheering for Garber.

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The Trump administration quietly makes this procedural change that delays that ban on enrolling

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international students.

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This is a 30 day delay.

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But they're slowing things down.

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So is this a taco trade?

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I don't like, it's possible.

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They're just dragging out the process to like keep the pressure on and scare more students

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out of showing up in the fall.

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But I think we've seen this pattern before, institutions and foreign governments, notably

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this week, the EU.

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And I would hope American businesses, people who don't flinch in the face of Trump's threats

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often find the follow through just doesn't materialize.

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The bark is loud, but the bite keeps getting delayed.

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Yeah, I knew you were going to bring up the taco trade.

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I love it.

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Yeah, look, I have to admit, it's tempting.

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Trump always chickens out.

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It's catchy.

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It's clever.

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And I swear, the moment you said it, I did like a Homer Simpson.

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Ooh, donut.

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But in this one, in this case, acronym.

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But yeah, I certainly get it, right?

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Taco has got a certain comfort with it.

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It's a good pattern with them.

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You see a big threat?

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You wait it out and eventually the pressure softens.

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I mean, that's the idea behind Trump always chickens out as an acronym.

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But here's the reflex.

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I think we have to name and challenge.

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And that is the assumption that just because Trump is back down before he always will,

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and as a result, that maybe you don't need to prepare seriously this time.

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I mean, first of all, it hasn't happened yet, right?

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I mean, the point here is to maintain your composure.

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That's really what the point is, right?

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But the instinct could get a little dangerous because if you start building strategy around

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delay instead of direction, you stop preparing and start hoping and hope is not strategy.

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I agree.

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I just think Garber is doing a really good job of holding his ground and making his point

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and standing on principle.

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And he's also, I think, importantly, he is, I know, it's like slow and steady.

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He's not out there every single day when he does make comments.

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They are consistent, but they still get attention.

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And he, again, I like the split screen because the White House comments about why they are

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targeting Harvard and other institutions.

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It swerves wildly all across like the road.

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And it's pretty clear that this is not about the anti-Semitism that they started with.

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Now Trump is onto left wing, whatever, whatever.

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And I think that if Garber and hopefully the other institutions who were along with him,

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in April, will continue on this path, again, slow and steady and unwavering, they just keep

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making that consistent point that they can get through this to the other side.

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Whether this is Taco or not.

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Yeah, look, this week gave us a great remarkable split screen.

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On Trump on one side praising Columbia University for, quote, "working with us and taking them

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off the hot seat."

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And yet, on the other side, Harvard's graduates rising and a standing ovation for a president

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who spent the past month to define that very pressure.

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So yeah, what we're watching is, to me, a tale of two reputational strategies.

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One is avoidance: get off the radar, comply quietly, survive the moment. And the other is assertion:

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hold your position, absorb the pressure, and make the case in public.

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Neither one is going to be risk-free, but they're playing for different outcomes.

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Columbia may preserve access, and Harvard is trying to preserve autonomy.

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One seeks the exit frame, I think, the other one is simply trying to rewrite it.

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So I don't know.

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When I think about the standing ovation, it wasn't just for Garber, it was also for a strategy

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of staying your ground, even though the cost is high.

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So the real question now is, who's bet's going to hold longer, the one that avoided the

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fight or the one that walked into it?

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Yeah.

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For what it's worth, the praise that Trump gave to, Claire Shipman, and I think she's

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in a really, you know, uncomfortably be impossible spot in that role, but I don't think that, I

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don't think that got Columbia or her or anything.

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Certainly, I don't think it aways anybody at Columbia.

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Yeah.

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Maybe a few, but it doesn't unify the student population or the faculty or whatever, the way

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that the attacks on Harvard have apparently, you know, given, at least given Garber the

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opening to bring everybody together, which seems to be pretty effective, and I have to say

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encouraging.

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Absolutely.

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Well, that's our show for this week.

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Our podcast is produced by Shawn P Neal and his team of Advocast that support from the

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People Forward Network.

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If you like the show, hit us up on LinkedIn, Craig, or myself, or drop us a line with your

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comments and suggestions.

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Our email address is podcast@ocrnetwork.com.

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Communication Breakdown is a production of the Observatory on Corporate Reputation.

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I'm Steve Dowling.

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And I'm Craig Carroll.

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Thanks for listening.

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We'll be back next week.

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[MUSIC]

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#UnitedAirlines #Harvard #ColumbiaUniversity #CBS #CNN #TheNewYorkTimes #NPR #CrisisCommunication #ReputationManagement #CorporateTransparency #AlignmentSignaling #InstitutionalAutonomy #ShawnPNeal #AdvoCast #OCRNetwork

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